


Flock of Many Colors

by swimmingfrug



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Casifer, Destiel - Freeform, Gabifer - Freeform, M/M, Sabriel - Freeform, Samifer - Freeform, Sastiel - Freeform, Team Free Love, Team Free Will, Wincest - Freeform, Wincestiel - Freeform, angel au, angel!Sam, angel!dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-04
Updated: 2014-03-04
Packaged: 2018-01-14 12:46:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1267117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swimmingfrug/pseuds/swimmingfrug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their wings weren't always colorful underneath.<br/>Experience made them that way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flock of Many Colors

Dean isn’t exactly sure how they got to this stage.

It had just been him and Sammy for so long. They had chosen to keep away from the rest of angel society long ago, and they thrived in their isolation.

They hadn’t always been that way. They used to be just as social and affectionate as the next angel.

Then the Leviathans happened.

Or more specifically, almost happened.

Hell happened, purgatory happened, all the monsters they could think of happened.

And of all the angels, Dean and his brother were the only ones to stand up to them.

That’s when the colors started cropping up.

Their wings, which had once been delicate shades of off-white and light brown like the rest of the angels, were now streaked with tinges of black, purple, and red throughout the undersides.

Now the Winchester angels were known for being prideful. Everybody knew that, there was living proof in John Winchester, who infamously went on a rampage on Earth after a demon dared attack his wife.

So they chose to isolate themselves rather than risk the scorn of the other angels during the communal groomings. And they were happy with their choice.

* * *

Then Castiel had flown into their little nest, quite literally, out of exhaustion, and nothing was quite the same after that.

Castiel. The famous runaway angel. Dean, of course, was starstruck, no matter how much he denied it afterwards.

The brothers took in the captain of what had been the most efficient garrison in Heaven and nursed him back to full strength. Dean expected Cas to take off the minute he could, but to his surprise, he stayed. More specifically, he asked to stay, and to join their flock.

Flock. Sam and Dean hadn’t known one since they fought the Leviathans. Dean would have said yes anyway, but the look of absolute wistfulness in Sam’s eyes sealed the deal.

The first time the three of them groomed together was also the first time the brothers got a proper look at Castiel’s wings. The angel usually had them tucked neatly behind his back, obscuring all but a few flashes of his undersides.

So when Cas stretched his wings out with a wary expression, the last thing they expected to find were undersides of pure black streaked through with lightning strikes of red, softened with traces of yellow and pink, so different from the shades of white on top.

Sam had grinned and flashed his own undersides at Castiel, letting him know there was nothing to be ashamed of in this nest. Dean followed suit, then proceeded to comb through Cas’s feathers.

During the grooming, the story came out. There had been whispers and rumors all about Heaven far before the Leviathans had reemerged about why Castiel had run away. All of them false, none came close to the actual story.

He had fallen in love with a demon. And more amazingly, she had loved him back. Heaven would never condone such a love, so she had killed herself to let him go free.

Dean could see the gratitude in Castiel’s eyes once he saw that they were not going to judge him. And they never would.

* * *

Gabriel and Lucifer came as a pair. The Lost One and the Fallen One. Archangels, the both of them.

They had found Castiel on his morning flight. Or more specifically, he went and found them and hauled them back.

Dean was dead set against allowing them in. The only archangels he had experience with were Michael and Raphael, and they could go drown themselves in a river of demon smoke for all he cared.

Unfortunately, Castiel had picked up Sammy’s habit of using pleading, heartbreaking expressions to win Dean over. So when both of his flockmates begged him silently to allow the archangels to join their family, he relented.

Lucifer had hidden away on Earth until Gabriel found him, and from there they hopped between Earth and the dimension of Asgard regularly, passing as minor deities. It was all rather ruined once the other gods had found out that the two were from Heaven. So they ran back to the only other place they knew. Gabriel contacted Castiel, who more than happily rejoined with his brothers. And now they were here.

Their wings were something else altogether. Sam would probably stare at them for hours on end if he were able to. And Dean had to admit that they were rather impressive. Both had sets of three, the topsides a burnished gold, rivaling the light of the Earth’s sun. When the light caught just right, Dean understood why Lucifer was once called the Morningstar.

But their undersides were in colors Dean had never seen on any other angel. Mixes of midnight blue, green and orange that would have looked absolutely hideous on anybody else, they wore with elegance. They also had the now-ubiquitous shades of red and black that everybody else in the flock had.

When Dean asked, Lucifer clammed up and Gabriel merely said that jumping between dimensions would do that to you.

And there they were, grooming each other like any other flock. Sam had taken to growing his hair out, and Gabriel was now braiding it, making jokes as he did so. Castiel and Lucifer were having a debate on the actual constitution of demons. Dean was more than happy to sit quietly, combing his fingers through whoever's feathers were closest.

That was their flock. A ragtag team of misfits that initially clashed but now whirred like gears in a clock. And Dean thanked Father every day that he had them.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments, questions and criticisms are always welcome :)


End file.
